I'm almost a month beyond my 1-year mark and still haven't accrued 40 hours of vacation time. The book says that one year = 40 hrs of paid vacation. Can I go ahead and use those 40 hours or do I have to wait for payroll to catch up?

You don't start getting vacation until a year of employment. Then after that you accrue it based on how many hours you work. So you would only get 40 hours if you worked 40 hrs a week. You can check how many hours you have available at the bottom of your pay stub.

That's not how many hours you get, that's the Maximum Accrual. ie - the maximum number of vacation hours you can bank. If you hit that, you stop accruing hours. Once you hit the 12 month mark, you start accruing vacation at some magic rate related to how many hours you work.

also, if you have problems understanding ANYTHING related to how you are paid or the definition of policies that you are expected to follow, call the PCC and ask. i've seen partners get fired for stupid things that they "didn't understand."

I'm Canada as well. I think we start receiving ours after the end of our three month probation. I use mine pretty frequently but I have at least 40 that I divy up between Christmas and Summer Vacation.

WAT. Where is this, because I have never heard anything like this. I'm a 5.5 year partner and I still get half an hour per 40 hours worked, which is what I assumed it was everywhere. U.S. only or have they changed things and I don't know about it? 'Cause...I could use an extra 40 hours vacation... -_-

Is that how it works? Half an hour per 40 hours? So in order to get 40 hours of vacation, I have to work...3200 hours? After an entire year of service, I have to work an extra 3200 hours for a 40 hour vacation. Meh, most jobs in our industry don't offer paid vacation so whatevs I'll just be happy to take a vacation in 10 FUCKING YEARS lol

Basically, yes. A few years ago it was one hour for every forty, but they cut it back to a half hour. I've taken one week to ten day vacations once a year but they are never fully paid for. My last one was early August last year and I've just now accrued almost 40 hours for my next vacation (mid Sept.) and I work average 32 - 35 hours a week. I've never heard of anyone but managers getting more PTO than the 1/2 hour per 40.

It is true that you don't get vacation until you work at Starbucks for a year. Then depending on what state you work in, like MA, you may have to wait an additional year to accrue the vacation time. In other states it may be given right away after the first year.